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Kennedys bring addiction fight to DC

Cousins Patrick Kennedy and Christopher Kennedy Lawford know a thing or two about addiction; the former congressman will be two years sober next month and Lawford, a longtime Hollywood producer and actor, has been sober 26 years after a long struggle with substance abuse.

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“There’s a real role for the federal government here in terms of leadership and in terms of policy,” said Lawford, a nephew of President John F. Kennedy and the son of actor Peter Lawford and Patricia Kennedy. He said that addiction is “an equal opportunity disease. … I would argue that 10 percent of Hollywood has it, 10 percent of Washington has it.”

Both Lawford and Kennedy agree that Washington’s best job would be to reduce the negative connotations around addiction.

“The president could use the bully pulpit of his office and address head on stigma,” Kennedy said. “What we really need is the president to address what keeps people from getting treatment and keeps people from respecting this as a physical illness. … It’s still looked at as a character issue, not a chemistry issue.”

Kennedy, whose father was the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, served in Congress from 2005 to 2011 and struggled with substance abuse during his tenure, including a 2006 incident in which he crashed his car on Capitol Hill. He wishes that his former colleagues in Congress would be more brave on issues surrounding substance abuse.

“When I was in rehab, I got a lot of ‘Get well’ cards from members of Congress that I didn’t know too well. And I went back and met them and they told me about a spouse who had tried suicide or a child who had an eating disorder. And then we had the voting day and I looked up at the congressional board and a lot of those same colleagues … voted no on mental health parity. You know the reason why? In the words of one of my colleagues, ‘Congressman, I don’t come from the same part of the country you come from. I come from the buckle of the Bible Belt. If I have to vote that way, I lose my seat.’ So the problem here is that we still have of ignorance and fear and prejudice that is associated with these illnesses that we now know how to treat.”

The two also weighed in on the recent trend to loosen marijuana laws around the country and had some reservations about the momentum behind the issue.

“I don’t believe in putting people in jail for smoking pot, but legalization is another issue,” said Lawford. “The affect they have on adolescent brains is significant. … The two most damaging drugs to individuals and to society — tobacco and alcohol — are both legal. We don’t need another drug.”

Kennedy said “what we ought to be about as a country is emphasizing prevention. … By condoning this, like tobacco and alcohol that have targeted kids, if we allow marijuana growers to target kids, the implications on our society are going to be dire. … We have to go slow. I think we ought to bring more public health officials in to talk about this before we go into this too fast.”